If you're looking to prepare it at home, Kotobukiya also often has it, it's usually been fine when I've gotten it from them. If you want to try it already prepared in Japanese style, I recommend Shiki in Brookline (coolidge corner).

Do you want it prepared in a restaurant or uncooked from a fish market?

I usually find it on the menu at Oishii in Chestnut Hill, but have not been there for awhile so I cannot be certain. They do have a website and offer extensive take-out so you should be able to check anytime.

Other than steaming it and serving with a ponzu sauce, have you tried it any other way?

Sorry, just noticed that you wanted walking distance from downtown Boston. If you are willing to take the T, both are easily accessible. New Deal is a few minutes walk from the Lechmere stop on the Green Line. That particular line runs right through downtown Boston. Oishii (Chestnut Hill) is a few minutes walk from the Chestnut Hill stop on another branch of the Green Line (Riverside, I believe). But it will take you about 30 minutes to get to that stop. Lechmere (and that end of Cambridge St. where New Deal is) is just across the river from the Science Museum.

Oishii does have a branch in the South End, I believe. That should qualify as walking distance from downtown Boston, but I have yet to try it.

Oh yeah, good point- I had meant to point this out too. (It's unfortunately one of our favorite foods, so we guiltily indulge in a few slices exactly once a year-- but we do try to make sure people know and think about this)

Thanks for all the great info – I’ll have to ask at Ginza or maybe Billy Tse’s for Ankimo.

Regarding the sustainability of Monkfish – last time I looked at the New Bedford fish auction, there were thousands of Monkfish tail for sale and only 9 livers. Most monkfish livers go to waste, so why shouldn’t I eat them instead?

In the case of Monkfish, it is not necessarily the sustainability of the species but the manner in which they are caught that is cause for major concern.

From the Monterey Bay Aquarium Site: "Monkfish are usually caught using bottom trawls, a method that can damage seafloor habitat and often results in high accidental catch of other species that are then discarded. Monkfish are also caught using gillnets; this can result in the accidental catch and death of sea turtles and marine mammals."

I see, thank you for the correction. I think my point still applies though – no extra fishing/habitat destruction will occur by saving a few more of the livers from the monkfish that would have been caught for their tails anyway. It appears (at least from the last New Bedford auction I can recall) that less than one percent have their livers saved.